Traditional Pound Cake
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Originally this dense-textured, rich yellow loaf  cake, originating in England, was made with one pound each of flour, butter, sugar and eggs, plus a flavoring like vanilla or lemon. A myriad of variations has evolved throughout the centuries.

Pound cake is so versatile. It can be served as a simple, unadorned dessert with a bowl of fresh fruit. Another way is serving pound cake lightly toasted with a scoop of ice cream on the side. You can also brush with jam and top with orange peel or drizzle glaze or fudge sauce over when serving. For decorating, a Pound Cake makes a perfect cake to cover with Fondant, because it is sturdy and will not crush under its weight and keeps moist for a longer period of time because of its high fat content.

Originally eggs were the only leavening used in pound cake. Today, a little baking powder is often added for additional lightness.

Note: Grandma Fickelscherer had a recipe that had you beat the egg whites until stiff and then fold them in. This will produce a lighter cake, but it will not have the texture of the traditional cake.

For a lemon pound cake, Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook adds 1/4 tsp. grated lemon rind and 1 Tbsp. lemon juice. Otherwise her recipe is very similar to the one below. Vanilla is also a favorite flavoring to add.

FMM: This recipe wasn't bad. The cake stayed moist and was very flavorful. I would like to try other recipes, also, especially an older one that doesn't use leavening.

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly grease and flour a 4 1/2 by 8 1/2 by 3-inch loaf pan. Sift flour and baking powder together; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light, fluffy, and a pale, ivory color. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition (if mixture begins to curdle, add 1 Tbsp. flour).

Fold in flour and pour immediately into prepared pan. Bake until golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean (25 to 30 minutes - I baked mine for much longer than this and the very middle of the cake was still not cooked. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean - perhaps an hour.). Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.

Serve sliced plain, with a confectioner’s sugar glaze, or with fresh fruit and whipped cream, even ice cream.

Serves 8

Cooking Tips

To make a Pound Cake, you beat the butter and sugar until they are light and creamy, then add the eggs one at a time and beat them in. Some recipes advise to alternative additions of the egg with additions of the flour; some say do all the egg first, then fold in the flour. Most recipes advise sifting the flour two or three times in advance to introduce air (this step is particularly important if you are using an authentic recipe with no baking powder; less important if you are using a modern recipe that calls for baking powder.)

The liquid in the recipe is supplied by the eggs. If the batter forms a thin coat on the back of a spoon, you have enough liquid. If it is thicker than that, you can add a bit of water or milk.

The starch in flour stiffens the butter, sugar and egg foam, and some gluten forms, which holds the cake together -- you don't want too much gluten to develop, though, or the cake will turn like bread. For this reason also, flour made from soft wheats is preferred (i.e. cake flour), as it has lower protein content from which to develop gluten.

You fold the flour in because you want to break as few as possible of the bubbles that you've worked hard to form -- the folding also helps avoid developing too much gluten.

You cook at a moderate temperature, then remove from oven and let cool for an hour or so in the pans before turning out onto wire racks. It has to be baked in a moderate oven (about 350 F / 175 C); any hotter and the middle may not get cooked properly, as it is so dense.